Falun Dafa Practitioner Shot at by Liaoning Province Police

2004-04-06

On March 14, 2004, Zhao Qingzhe and other police officers from the Taishan Police Station of the Liaohe Oil Field Police Department shot at Falun Dafa practitioner Zheng Qunpeng while chasing him. Mr. Zheng, forty years of age, worked at Motor Equipment Co., a subsidiary of the Physical Exploration Inc. of the Liaohe Oil Field. His belief in Falun Dafa turned him from a person who frequently fought with others into a good citizen who followed the Falun Dafa principles of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. Because of his refusal to give up his belief in Falun Dafa, the Party Secretary from his company and the officers from Taishan Police Station attempted, at the end of 2003, to abduct him to the brainwashing centre in Fushun City, Liaoning Province. That plan failed in the end. A few days ago, a few organizations of the Liaohe Oil Field such as Shuguang Oil Extraction Plant, Yulou Vocational School, and the No.2 Company of Well Drilling, together with the local police, started another round of abducting Falun Gong practitioners to Fushun Brainwashing Centre.

At around 5:20 am, March 14, 2004, Mr. Zheng and his colleagues were on their way to work when somebody ordered them to stop in front of the traffic booth near the Geology and Mining Bureau of Panjin City. Turning back, they saw a black car, which was not a police car. Without knowing what was going on, they continued to walk. Suddenly, three people jumped out of the car and ran after Zheng as the car pulled over to their left.

Afraid of being abducted, Zheng Qunpeng ran toward the Jinxiang residential area, when a man in his fifties grabbed onto his clothes from the side and attempted to stop him. (The man was later confirmed to be a police officer from Taishan Police Station, whose name is Ding Donglin.)

Zheng managed to break free and continued to run. Ding fell down after failing to catch Zheng. While Zheng was running, he heard two gunshots from behind. Another gunshot was heard, which hit the ground right next to him. According to the witnesses, Zhao Qingzhe, also a policeman at Taishan Police Station, aimed right at Zheng and tried to shoot him down. All three gunshots were aimed directly at practitioner Zheng, rather than in the sky as a warning. Fortunately, officer Zhao missed his target.

Practitioner Zheng was finally caught when he reached the residential area. Officer Zhao continued to shout, "Let me break his legs!" Practitioner Zheng asked them, "Why do you arrest me?" Nobody responded. Practitioner Zheng then asked again. "Do you dare to tell me your names?" Officer Zhao answered, "I am Zhao Qingzhe." The other guy dared not to even tell his name. During the chase, a colleague of practitioner Zheng's, Mr. A, was so frightened that he quickly rode away on his bicycle. When another colleague of Zheng's, Mr. B, also got caught, he shouted angrily at the policemen, "You bandits! How dare you shoot at people at will! We were on our way to work. What's so wrong with us?" Because officer Ding used to be Mr. B's co-worker, Ding released Mr. B after his protest.

In the past, officer Zhao Qingzhe had committed a lot of crimes. In August of 2003, he abducted Dafa practitioner Mr. Yin Baowen, a worker at the Physical Exploration Company, and forced him into the Fushun brainwashing centre. He unlawfully handcuffed Yin and harshly beat him until Yin lost control of his bladder and bowels

To expose the police's illegal violence and to prevent shootings from happening again, practitioner Zheng shouted as he was being handcuffed, "Zhao Qingzhe shot at me! He wants to break my legs!" Zhao started beating him with the help of the other unnamed accomplice. Soon, more policemen came to beat him. One of them removed Zheng's belt and attempted to use it to tie up his legs, while another person forcefully pressed his arms against Zheng's neck. Zheng could hardly breathe as each policeman took turns hitting his head, eyes, chest, back, and legs. His left eye became darkened. His right temple swelled up two centimeter high. His back was so painful that he could not stand straight, and his chest hurt so much that it hurt just to breathe.

With dozens of onlookers around, one of the officers shouted, "Open the trunk. Toss him in!" Holding the handcuff on Zheng's wrists, one guy dragged him for about a dozen meters (forty feet). The handcuff cut into Zheng's flesh. With both of his hands heavily bruised and in tremendous pain, Zheng was gradually losing consciousness. They then lifted Zheng and tried to toss him into the trunk. Struggling to avoid being suffocated in the trunk, Zheng pressed his left foot against the car. They quickly tied up his left leg while officer Zhao shocked practitioner Zheng's left leg with his electric baton. Finally, Zheng was tossed into the trunk and it was locked.

As soon as the car arrived at the local police station, officer Zhao forcefully pulled down Zheng's head while others were lifting him to the second floor. Claiming practitioner Zheng was not obeying, officer Zhao instructed others to tie up Zheng's feet and legs. Under the endless torture, practitioner Zheng became unconscious. With his back, chest, left leg painfully hurt, his hands darkened from bruises, swollen and numb, Zheng asked the policemen to unlock his handcuffs. His request was denied. Until then, the authorities had not revealed their identities or explained the reason for abducting him.

Finally, Wang Youshan, from the National Security Brigade of the Liaohe Police Department, came to interrogate Zheng. Apparently, realizing how absurd this was, Wang simply threatened him for a while and left. The officers in the local police station also threatened him and claimed, "We could sentence you and send you to a labour camp because you attacked police officers and shouted 'Falun Dafa is great'. If you don't tell anyone about this (the abduction, shooting, and beatings), we'll let you go." (Note: Ding tripped while attempting to abduct practitioner Zheng. Instead, they accused Zheng of 'attacking police officers'.)

Zheng's wife helped him leave the police station and walk home. He could hardly stand and coughed for over half an hour in the bathroom. Zheng is now bed ridden, wracked by coughs and pain all over his body.